Call for Papers: 7th Annual Symposium on IP/Gender: Mapping the Connections held at the Washington College of Law

The American University Washington College of Law (WCL) (a top U.S. law school that is renowned as the provider of quality legal education in all areas of the law, including intellectual property, information about which can be obtained from here) requires scarce introduction to the academically oriented. Among other programs offered by it, WCL can boast of the Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property (PIJIP) (it works to advance access to information for people, who depend on it to make essential cultural and economic contributions to the society, and also hosts events emphasizing its values; details about PIJIP can be obtained from here).

In collaboration with the Women and the Law Program (WLP; details of which can be obtained from here) of WCL and the Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law (which addresses issues such social and political equality under the law, the unique role of gender in the formation of social policy, as well as the administration and development of the law; further details about the journal can be obtained from here), PIJIP is on the verge of hosting the The 7th Annual Symposium on “IP/Gender: Mapping the Connections” on April 16, 2010. Dan Burk, Chancellor’s Professor of Law, U.C. Irvine, is also acting in the capacity of a collaborator with regard to this event.

Earlier versions of this symposium have before this provided a forum to examine researches on gendered dimensions of IP law, with a wide-ranging series of issues such as the impact of IP law and policy on gender-related imbalances in wealth, cultural access, political power, and social control; the effects of stereotyping and of actual and rhetorical feminization and masculinization of participant roles upon IP stakeholders; the gendered development of IP doctrines and doctrinal categories; feminist jurisprudential insights about IP law; and the interface between female fan cultures and IP, to name a few.

“Gender and Invention” is going to be the special theme of this symposium, which boasts of participants such as Zorina Khan from Bowdoin College, Mario Biagioli from the Harvard University, Rayvon Fouche from the University of Illinois, Laurel Smith-Doerr from the Boston University and Kara Swanson from the Drexel University.

The Symposium has now released an invitation for papers on gender issues relating to the production and use of inventions, broadly defined. Potential topics include, but are not limited to the following:

(a) gendered patterns in the history of invention or creation;

(b) gendered regulation of inventive activities;

(c) gendered models of individual and collective inventive activities;

(d) gendered aspects in licensing or assignment of technologies etc.

The deadline for submission of abstracts is November 20, 2009 at 5:00 p.m. Eastern time U.S. Papers will be selected for presentation and possible publication by December 4, 2009, and will be due by March 1, 2010. For submission of an abstract or project description for consideration, a web-based form has to be filled up, which is available here. Subjected to availability of funds, reasonable travel expenses may be provided for presenters. Selected papers may be considered for publication in the Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law.

The symposium itself is scheduled to convene from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 pm on Friday, April 16, 2010 at WCL in Washington, D.C. Details about past programs for the prior counterparts of the Symposium can be obtained from here.

People, who are interested in attending the event, but not presenting work, are to register for the same here. For any further questions about attending, one is requested to contact Angie McCarthy, Women and the Law Program Coordinator at [email protected].

This Symposium promises to be an extremely interesting as well as entertaining event especially for the people interested in exploring the various facets of IP law and its interface with issues pertaining to gender and social policy. It is undoubtedly a great platform to launch one’s ideas in relation to the themes and subject-matters as aforesaid. The followers of Spicy IP and especially the Indian IP enthusiasts are being requested hereby to avail of this opportunity at the soonest.